Whose name?
How many computers ago - how many years ago - did he last email me?
Last week, I was talking about a NASA physicist I had met in the 1990s. We talked about man-lifting kites and the aeronauts of the Civil War. "You should write a children's book about it," I said. Funny thing: he'd already thought of that.
We all have awesome ideas like that.
Most of us never write a single one of them down.
Phone numbers. Sometimes on the back of a concert program or in the margins of my checkbook, I'll find a phone number. Always so confident I'll remember whose number it is, I rarely write down the name.
Rarely do I recognize the number or remember who gave it to me, or why.
Espionage is clearly not my calling, not if a good memory is required. Need a tech-tard? Call Carol.
You, however: you are a writer.
You see contest prompts, and ideas start escalating in your head.
Pick your genre. Pick the gender, the identity. (Romance? Thriller? Science Fiction?)
Change "name" to phone number or address or whatever serves your purpose.
So many, many directions you can go with this. Here's one:
“People think we had a love-hate relationship.
Well, I did not love him, nor did I hate him.
We had mutual respect for each other, even as
we both planned each other's murder.”
― Werner Herzog (goodreads quote)
My own story idea was born of a struggle to recall the name of that NASA engineer who wanted to write some historical fiction and probably never did. How I'd love to happen a children's book with soldiers in hot air balloons doing surveillance during the Civil War!
One author asked if she could change the premise to its opposite: instead of almost-remembering the man and searching for his name, she clears out some clutter and happens across the name that would have remained forgotten.
I am not a stickler for how closely one follows a story prompt.
Where does inspiration take you? That's the purpose of the prompt (for me).
Start thinking. Above all, have fun with it. Yes, punctuation and mechanics matter. The fun of imagining a story - and telling it - is where the magic is, for me.
Our Fiction Workshop is free, so take advantage of it - enter your contest piece and identify it as such. Click here for The submission form
I won't lie. I read all the Rhino Contest #2 entries that showed up in the spreadsheet and offered comments on every one of them. No writer got more help or more encouragement from me than another.
In a few weeks, I will officially announce the contest and deadlines.
Word limit? I don't count words. In the ball park of 500 to 1,500 ought to suffice.
I will be the sole judge.
@bex-dk has already donated $10 sbd toward the prize pool.
With only $20 left in my wallet, that's all I plan to offer, this time.
But any upvote $ from contest posts will be shared among the runners-up, or added as a bonus to the winner.
Have fun!
Pixabay photo credits:
Woman, Man in profile and Computer: courtesy of geralt * Gerd Altmann
Thank you, for this opportunity, @carolkean. Here is the delirium of my heart laid bare: https://steemit.com/fiction/@yahialababidi/rhino-writing-contest-3-her-unutterable-name
@yahialababidi, thank YOU for entering - and forgive me, please, for my inattentiveness! Things got really crazy at that time, not that explanations are excuses (as @geekorner is so good at reminding me). I swear I remember posting a comment on this, and how I love your use of the prompt -
Now, finding her name, the unutterable one, how many computers ago - how many years ago - did I last email her? It, finally, did not matter. Love is immortal...
Again, thank you.
Absolutely nothing to forgive, dear Carol. I enjoyed submitting (and forgot about it, since).
Thank you for your diligence 😊
Thanks for the contest! Going to add my submission...right...here.
Twilight of the Long Road Come
I wrote a little something! Hope you like it :D
https://steemit.com/writing/@caleblailmusik/midnight-run-rhino-writing-contest-3
Finally, I posted it a day before the deadline (I hope)... the 12:00 can be understood as both the last hour of today or the last hour of tomorrow...
Here's my entry: https://steemit.com/fiction/@ahmadmanga/your-heart-would-remember-short-story-for-rhino-writing-contest-3
Thanks for the help, changed a lot since your last suggestion !!
Really not sure if this is too late or not. But I had fun writing it, which was the main purpose for me... https://steemit.com/fiction/@felt.buzz/too-many-jonos-an-entry-in-the-rhino-writing-contest-3
The Rhino is not a mad cow--some flexibility.. You're fine in terms of deadline. It's some hours away yet here.
Thank you for entering! I don't watch clocks and calendars too closely. Bex is right - word count, rules, regulations, are not my highest priorities. Looking forward to reading all the entries!
Here's my sci-fi take: https://steemit.com/fiction/@cizzo/apollo-s-fire-rhino-writing-contest-3
Here goes the darn story:
https://steemit.com/fiction/@authorofthings/one-of-a-kind-rhino-writing-contest-3
Dammit! I put #writersblock as my first tag, fiction and contest 2 and 3.
Well, here it is, anyway, lol! It's a stand alone story from the world inhabited by Amelia, assassin extraordinaire of OITO, OITC
https://steemit.com/writersblock/@jrhughes/known-a-one-in-the-oven-one-in-the-chamber-stand-alone-story-for-rhino-writing-contest-3
At long, long last, here is:
Thank you so much for a challenging contest, and for all you do for The Writers' Block.
😄😇😄
@carolkean,
Here is a link to my entry. Thank you for the contest.
Roast Beef
@Lymmerik
https://steemit.com/fiction/@lymmerik/roast-beef-rhino-writing-contest-3
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STOPHere is my entry:
https://steemit.com/fictioncontest/@pyrowngs/my-entry-for-the-rhino-fiction-contest
https://steemit.com/scifi/@crimsonkate/man-farm
whee!!! time to get thinking. Now I just need you to plant a worm in my brain again.
It could be a long-lost brother.
It could be a lawyer.
A guy you met at a Science Fiction convention. You emailed a few times. Your puppy knocked your laptop to the floor and broke it, and you lost all trace of the guy. Years have passed. Six computers later, you think of him, and you need to contact him, because....
"On a hard drive" could be "on a slip of paper in a book," if you're doing historical fiction.
Just found your post a bit late. But, yeah, I'd looking forward to the announcement.
OMG I haven't been following you.
I have corrected that omission.
@joe.nobel
LOL!
Joe, I wasn't following you either - both of us have remedied that.